Ex-Trinitas owners move to keep suit alive

SAN ANDREAS - The former owners of the former Trinitas golf course have taken legal steps to keep alive a $12 million federal lawsuit against Calaveras County officials.

The Record

SAN ANDREAS - The former owners of the former Trinitas golf course have taken legal steps to keep alive a $12 million federal lawsuit against Calaveras County officials.

Mike and Michelle Nemee no longer own the 280 acres of land south of Wallace where they built and operated a golf course. But they still hope to collect money from county officials who they say violated their civil rights by conspiring to deny them a permit to operate the course, which was built without permits in an agricultural preserve.

Community Bank of San Joaquin seized the property earlier this year and sold it to new owners. Also, since the Nemees' bankruptcy case is now over, U.S. Eastern District California Bankruptcy Judge Ronald Sargis had threatened to halt any further consideration of the civil rights case unless the Nemees acted to transfer that case to another court.

In court papers posted Monday, the Nemees did that. A hearing on their motion to take the case to U.S. District Court is scheduled in Bankruptcy Court on Jan. 17.

Calaveras County officials said the course was not a legal business on land zoned for agriculture. The Nemees, who also operated an olive orchard, said the golf course was a legal form of agritourism. The Nemees lost a trial on the agritourism issue and are now appealing that loss to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal in San Francisco.